Judgment_paragraph 53 · Brussels Securities SA v État belge (C-389/18)

53However, that observation only seeks to establish that the dividends have not been taxed directly, in themselves. As pointed out in paragraphs 33 and 37 above, the first indent of Article 4(1) of Directive 90/435 precludes, subject only to what is permitted by Article 4(2) and (3), both direct taxation of the parent company in respect of profits distributed by its subsidiary and situations in which the parent company is indirectly taxed on dividends received from its subsidiary. As stated in paragraph 45 et seq. above, the receipt of dividends, in connection with the application of a tax regime such as that at issue in the main proceedings, may, in certain situations, result in the loss of a tax advantage, which in turn may result in higher taxation of the parent company than would be the case if such dividends had been excluded from its tax base. Since the parent company’s tax burden is likely to be affected, it must be concluded that the parent company is, as a result, indirectly taxed on the dividends received from its subsidiary.